In just two months, Texans suffering from intractable epilepsy will be able to purchase a type of medicinal cannabis approved by the state. The dispensary itself is located outside a rural Texas town better known for its dancehalls, polka music and kolaches, via Texas Public Radio.
Austin mom Katie Graham, sips coffee at a café on the city’s Northwest side. She’s just sent her son Elliott off on a school field trip and now nervously monitors her cell phone for texts alerting her that her son has suffered another seizure.
“There’s always a really high level of anxiety and stress. Every single moment, ever single phone call, you never know if that’s that one call from school that he’s had another seizure and so even at night we don’t sleep very well because there’s always that anxiety," Graham explains.
CBD Oil
CREDIT RYAN POPPE
Graham’s son is one of 150-thousand patients, who’ve registered with the state and had a doctor recommend the use of a type of cannabis oil that has high concentrations of cannabidiol or CBD and extremely low-levels of THC, the psychoactive component of the marijuana plant.
“The fact that it’s right here and doctors will actually be prescribing it just gives us a huge piece of mind, so we are really excited about the offerings in Texas," Graham says.
Graham says they enrolled Elliott in a CBD drug trial while waiting for the new law to come online and immediately saw improvements in how often his seizures were occurring.
Texas’ medical cannabis law, known as the “Compassionate Use Program works like this; patients with epilepsy and a doctor’s recommendation can register with the state, which allows them to visit 1 of 3 licensed dispensaries to purchase cannabis oil. The oil must only contain 0.5% THC or less in order for it to be legal in the State.
The oil can either be inhaled through a vaporizer or taken sublingually.
Jose Hidalgo, is the owner of Knox Medical, the first dispensary to be licensed by the state. His company has licensed medical cannabis operations in Florida and Puerto Rico. For its Texas operation, Knox Medical chose the City of Schulenburg with a population of just under 3-thousand residents.
Knox Medical Dispensary in between Schulenburg and Flatonia, Texas
CREDIT RYAN POPPE
“We require a large amount of land for us to even consider that and then the next consideration after that was how can we get the closest to the largest amount of the population. So for us, Schulenburg was a good location because you are right near the triangle of Houston, San Antonio and Austin," Hidalgo explains.
Knox Medical’s marijuana grow operation and dispensary is virtually unnoticeable. It’s located just off of a two-lane country road. And while guarded by a chain-link fence and razor wire it still resembles a portable building you might see at a construction site with a make-shift greenhouse, except with a lot more surveillance cameras.
While many Schulenburg business owners were reluctant to share their views about the medical cannabis oil being produced and sold in their own backyard.
City Market, Schulenburg, Texas
CREDIT RYAN POPPE
Others like Roy Smrkovski, owner of the City Market, a barbecue joint/meat market, right in the heart of town welcomes the idea.
“I don’t believe in essence of smoking “weed” and driving and doing stuff like that. It is for medicinal purposes, why suffer, why go through life and suffer," Smrkovski says.
Smrkovksi, whose wife suffers from chronic pain says he would be in favor of the state passing a full medical cannabis law that allows a doctor to recommend its use for any condition.
Stacy Hegar, who manages the Marketplace Café and Garden just a few blocks away from Smrkovski, says the dispensary is likely to also boost the town’s economy.
“Well, and we’ve had some of the employees come in and eat, so the employees are helping the economy also," Hegar says.
Knox Medical says registered patients with the state will be able to call in and pick up their orders at their Schulenburg location, but they anticipate most of their business will occur online. Registered Texas patients using the company’s website will place an order and then have it couriered to their location, which will begin happening by the end of December.
